PR for Crafters

Lesson 15 of 19

Building Your Media List

PR for Crafters

Lesson 15 of 19

Building Your Media List

Lesson Info

Building Your Media List

Now that you know who is working on what and who you should contact, you have to start building your media list, and what I mean by that is that you have to get people's email addresses so you can contact them. So there are two ways that you can do that. The first one is through buying access to a media list, and we talked about that earlier, the question came up about one medial issue to choose. There are quite a few databases out they're the ones that I've used that I've had a lot of success with our coal decision, and there was to be another company called focus and that's video see us and they both of those two companies merge. So now it's just one company, but I've also tried media databases like my media info and a couple of other ones, so if you research or google media databases, you're going to see a ton of them and you there isn't one that works for everyone because I know some are really expensive, but they give you a lot of information and some are much cheaper, and they gi...

ve you just the information you need, so you kind of have to determine what your budget is. I know some of these larger ones cost thousands of dollars per year which we often don't have one hundred first starting out but any future is buying a media list that cost a lot less but then you don't get that updated like you would with a media database so think about your budget not there isn't one solution that's really right for everyone there is solutions for every sort of budget and every sort of need out there so if you buy it it'll cost you money but it will save you a ton of time but you can also build your own media list and that is practically free so you don't have to pay anything to look up someone's email address but it's going to take you a lot of time I've done this on my own where I was trying to figure out what the email addresses of that person and that person and often times you want to give up because it it takes so long but you can still do it if you're persistent enough you can still get that information is just going to take you a little bit more time so these are your two options if you work with a pr firm, you don't have to worry about any of this they already do all of that for you they have the contact and you need to worry about building your own media database but since we're all here to learn about how to do it, these are the two ways that you can get your media database together so as you are looking, tio but let's say you decide to buy a database or immediate list. There are some questions that you should be asking as you are going through your process, so you want to know how often is this database updated some of them, you'll be surprised don't get updated that often, some of them will get updated one hundred times a day, so you want to get one? Yeah, because there's so many enters and they're and they're always moving. The other thing with buying the media list, as opposed to subscribing to a media database, is that magazine editors move all the time. There is such high turnover, so even if you bought a media list from last month, maybe like two thirds of those people are still there, a third could have moved on to other jobs. I think that's a pretty high percentage, but the point that I'm trying to make is that they move around all the time. If you see I think the magazine editor from red book, I think she was on editor in chief at a different magazine before that because I see her name everywhere. And she's been on other magazines too so they move all the time so if you're investing in a media database you pay a monthly fee or a yearly fee by you get those updates if you're buying a media list you pay a one time fee by you don't get those updates so again think about how important is p r to do do it on a regular basis you need constant updates or are you just doing pr wants but I don't recommend but you're doing it maybe just to launch something or you didn't get specifically for holiday gift guide so it just really depends on your needs but that's something that you should be asking if you're paying anyone for a media list or any sort of media database ask them how often it is updated and also ask what kind of contact information does it have? Does it have their name? Does it have their title doesn't have their mailing gadget is their phone number their email address some of these media databases will even give you their twitter handle and their facebook page so think about what information is important for you to know usually email address should be something that we all want and I think all of these do you have that but make sure that the information you need is in there before you spend all your money on a media database also ask if you can download it so often times, if you're getting a media database, you might have to go into the database, but you can download any list, so you have to manually copy and paste everything, and I've signed up for a couple of media databases word that was the case I couldn't even copy and paste I had to manually type in as I was building my list that's definitely not something you want. You want something, or you could neither downloaded or copy and paste it into your own email, and that is going to save you so much time, and we're paying for a media database so we can save ourselves a lot of time from doing all of that research so that something you should be asking when you are looking and considering media databases, you should also ask about any extras so some media databases will give you editorial calendar. Some will give you maybe the other stories that the magazine editors have recently worked on. So all of these things are, if it's important to to get that information, make sure that if you pay for one of these databases that it actually has that information that you built now, if you decide to go the less expensive route and build your own media list, there are a couple of ways that you could get someone's email address so you know their title you know their name because you've been looking at their masthead but you could still get their information and their email address so this is I've done this before and it works it might take a little bit of lead work because you have to find out their phone number and oftentimes you'll have to leave a message and hope someone's there. But sometimes you can call the office the editorial office and ask what the mailing or what their email addresses and sometimes they'll say, well, let me transfer you to their voice mail and then on their voice mail it says hi you village you've reached linda smith please send me an email at linda that's smith at time inc so oftentimes they'll have their email address on their voice mail often times the receptionist when you first calling they might say, oh, our standard email address or email address format is first name dot last name at magazine named dot com so then you know that every person at that magazine has that you know, I just so now you literally have the email address of everyone at that magazine and you could also google things like emails and or email format four sir and magazines and there's plenty of websites out there that published a little cheat sheet with email addresses at magazine so that's you can see it's a really sort of long way and it takes a lot of legwork but you can still find someone's email address without actually paying for a media database. You could also check their web site check their masthead oftentimes you'll see I think with new york times they'll do this where they will tell you the email address of the person who wrote that article and you could actually reach out to them directly so check their web site to see if they actually published their email address along with their byline in the article and search online. You will be shocked if you type in email address for in the name of the person how often you will find it and I think there's even plug ins I don't know any names but there's plug ins that will help you like plug ins for your gmail or something like that that will help you find people's email addresses and you can also check social media so linked and is really great for this often times if you connect with someone on social media especially lincoln, you will have access to their email address so if you know you want to reach a magazine editor, go connect with them on linked in and don't pitch them on lincoln that's now why we're connecting with them there but you are going to have access to their email address and you can get it that way. So there are a few different things that you couldn't dio when it comes. Tio building someone's. Forgetting someone's email address.

Class Description

Doing your own PR can be really intimidating. It is easy to feel like you don’t have the right connections or budget to get featured in the media. And what happens when you don’t have enough product to meet the demands of a huge press mention? Andreea Ayers knows exactly how that feels and in PR for Crafters she’ll help you develop a complete action plan for getting and managing press.

No matter how big or small your handmade operation is, Andreea will help you set up the PR plan that is right for you and the way you do business. She’ll help you identify the types of stories editors are looking for and how to pitch them what you sell.

You’ll learn how to:

Find out what magazine editors are working on and who to contact

Tailor pitches to magazines, bloggers, and other media outlets

Increase sales after you get a press mention

Andreea will help set up a PR plan that doesn’t overwhelm your schedule but is in alignment with your target outlet’s editorial calendars. You’ll master the art of making your work more compelling to editors and more likely to be picked up.

Andreea has started and sold three companies in the last five years and that success has been bolstered by her DIY approach to getting press. In PR for Crafters she’ll take you step-by-step through her process and offer lots of tips on making it your own.

SEA PONY COUTURE

This class was so jam packed with useful and current information. It deals with issues that did not even exist as recent as last year. I made drastic changes to my social media outlets and forums, that have greatly improved my fan base. Andreea is an amazing roll model, teacher, and example of success.

user-189667

I watched all three days of this course, and it has helped my mom and I in so many ways. We started a soap business in late 2014, and nothing we did worked. So we are currently regrouping, and with all the information we learned from Andreea we feel so much more confident this time around. Anyone looking to do great things with their company needs to see these 3 courses. Creative Live great decision on having Andreea on here.